Ras Nsi

Ras (or "Duke") Nsi was one of the seven barae, the Chosen of Ubtao. He was infamous for seeking bloody and violent revenge against the Eshowe tribe of Chult and for the creation of the majority of the undead that roam that land.

Ras Nsi dressed the part of a Cormyrean noble, wearing a sky-blue cloak and bearing a rapier. He had soft features, but his eyes supernaturally glowed bright red whenever he became irritable or spoke of his zeal for the city of Mezro.

After the Spellplague, he resembled a Yuan-Ti Malison, with his torso and face wrapped in bandages, and bore a flaming longsword. He additionally wore a set of bracers of defense, and carried a sending stone matched to one carried by his agent, Salida.

The first impression one might receive when meeting Ras Nsi was that he was decadent and weak-willed.

Nsi, despite his exile, maintained a powerful devotion to both Ubtao and his holy city. He strongly opposed King Osaw's opening of the once hidden city to non-Tabaxi.

Ras Nsi was one of the seven original Chosen of Ubtao, and by 1372 DR, he was the only one of the original barae still alive. However, it should be noted that this was partly because he had been resurrected several times.

At the end of the great civil war between the Tabaxi and Eshowe tribes, so great was his zeal to protect his city, Nsi began a crusade to slaughter every last Eshowe in punishment for their attack on Mezro. For this, he was exiled by the other six barae.

In 1360 DR, a figure claiming to be Ras Nsi stole the egg of the female Topaz dragon Kraxx, and hid it within his volcanic lair located on an island near the coast of Chult, believed to have been the Mother-of-Mists. Upon having been confronted by a group of pirates hired by the dragon, the individual claiming to be Ras Nsi transformed himself into the shape of a Blue dracolich and confronted the pirates, chasing them out of his lair, whereupon the dracolich was attacked and slain by the larger Topaz.

When the city of Mezro was "destroyed" by the Spellplague, it was assumed that Ras Nsi was destroyed along with it, as the barae were prophesied to crumble to dust if ever the city were annihilated.[9] In truth, when the Spellplague started, the barae used their magic to shift the city into a magically constructed demiplane transporting the buildings and its citizens to it and creating false ruins to misguide those searching for the city. Bara Alisanda Rayburton and the naga Saja N'baza theorized that it likely wouldn't return to Toril until Ras Nsi died.

However, this was not the case, Ras Nsi instead joined a yuan-ti cult dedicated to the return of the primordial Dendar, later being transformed into a Yuan-Ti himself and taking leadership of the cult. He allied himself with the Oerthan lich Acererak to help him achieve this goal.